Does Zimos have throat cancer?

I've been playing SRTT for a while now and this whole thing with Zimos and that golden mic he uses and his sing song voice has always had me confused. He really only seems to make an appearance in this one game in the series so I doubt there's a lot of backstory available for him but he acts as if he has throat cancer.

He's the only character I see smoking in the game.
The golden mic always goes to his throat, not his mouth.
We never see his throat uncovered; even in the pony outfit he has a choker across his throat.

So, is the golden mic supposed to be like those devices people who've had their vocal chords removed use to talk? Is it just a style thing that it gives his voice a lyrical quality rather than a scratchy artificial sound?

Yes, I know that in the final analysis it probably doesn't matter but it's got me curious now and if there is any work on the back stories of the SRTT characters, I'd love to know where to find it.

Zimos has had a tracheostomy. The golden mic has an electronic voice box with Autotune installed. However, it's somewhat treated as a joke because according to the homie conversation between him and Kinzie, the microphone works regardless of where he holds it. If you summon him as a homie, he doesn't even have the microphone and uses a shotgun.